


A Thousand Silver Stars

by cerie



Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: AU, F/M, Fusion, Harry Potter - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-20
Updated: 2013-10-20
Packaged: 2017-12-29 23:54:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1011576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cerie/pseuds/cerie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The other professors are there to greet him but he’s only got eyes for Magnus, her blue eyes bright in her pale face and her deep green robes edged in silver. She’s just as stunning as she’d been 15 years ago when he left school and now he feels like a student again, scrawny and spotted and more likely to set his ass on fire than cast a spell.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Thousand Silver Stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [convenientmisfires](https://archiveofourown.org/users/convenientmisfires/gifts).



> This is a Sanctuary/HP fusion fic written for Sam's birthday. Happy Birthday.

Will is between jobs when he gets the offer to come back to Hogwarts to teach Muggle Studies and he jumps on it. The happiest he’s ever been in his whole life was there at school and it made him forget about the horrible long summers spent with his dad where neither knew how to relate to the other. He guesses his dad always harbored a little ill will against wizards; his mother had been killed solely because she’d been a witch who’d married a Muggle and had died when Will was very small. 

He’s also appointed the head of Hufflepuff house, owing to the fact that the old head has finally retired. He doesn’t know if he’s really qualified to be a Head of House since he’s so young but he’s told that the head of Slytherin, Professor Magnus, is more than happy to help him with his new duties. That doesn’t make him nervous _at all_. 

Magnus had been a professor when Will was in school but she’d been very young; everyone had taken a very keen interest in Potions in Will’s year and most were terribly disappointed when they couldn’t get into NEWT level potions because of Magnus’ exacting standards. Will had barely scraped into it himself and spent most of his seventh year hoping that Magnus would notice him instead of actually paying attention to what he was doing. He scraped an A on his NEWT exam and left Potions behind to pursue a thankless career as a Muggle liaison for the Ministry.

From there, he ended up working in the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad and now, apparently, he’s going home to Hogwarts. It really does feel like _home_ , even if he’s not running around with his friends and cramming for exams and setting the exams instead. He chooses to Apparate into Hogsmeade instead of riding the Hogwarts Express (mostly on account of time - he would have loved to ride the train into school again) and walks to the school. 

The other professors are there to greet him but he’s only got eyes for Magnus, her blue eyes bright in her pale face and her deep green robes edged in silver. She’s just as stunning as she’d been 15 years ago when he left school and now he feels like a student again, scrawny and spotted and more likely to set his ass on fire than cast a spell.

***

Will manages to get through the first half of term with relative ease. Muggle Studies isn’t a hard class and while most of his students are younger, he has two relatively bright students in his NEWT-level class and he thinks they’ll do really well at the Ministry. He isn’t the best as far as connections go but he encourages them all the same. One of his students has high ambitions of being Minister someday and Will encourages her to talk to Magnus. Magnus is a pure-blood witch from an old family and if anyone can help her, it’ll be Magnus.

Offering that, of course, means going to talk to Magnus himself so he sends her an owl and they agree to meet in her office down in the dungeons. Magnus is a little busier than usual: she’s taken on both Potions and Care of Magical Creatures and her office is a hodgepodge of things for both courses. Will is staring intently at a niffler in a cage when Magnus comes in, looking a little windswept and out of it. 

“Sorry, Will, my Gryffindors and Slytherins got in a fight again and there were hexes everywhere. I had to send the lot of them off to the hospital wing.” Will chuckles a little and is thankfully very glad that Slytherins don’t often see the wisdom in taking Muggle Studies. He doesn’t have very many of them at all and the ones he has are all very kind and usually half-bloods or from families that don’t seem to put as much importance on blood purity. 

“It’s good. I was just looking at your niffler,” he says, gesturing at it, and he sees a little hole at the edge of his sleeve. Damn. He needs new robes like nothing else and normally it doesn’t bother him, except he knows that Magnus has bespoke robes from Madam Malkin’s and never seems to wear the same set twice. 

Magnus smiles a little, revealing a dimple in her cheek and leans in close. Will suddenly feels like the dungeon is too hot to breathe and barely resists fanning himself. Instead, he takes in a deep gulp of air and smells her perfume, a soft lilac with an undercurrent of steel beneath. He’s not sure what it is, exactly, or even if it’s on purpose but he remembers that perfume from back when he was a student and it affects him just as much now. 

“Ah, yes, they’re clever and useful creatures. This poor fellow had gotten into the astronomy tower and was wreaking havoc so I captured him. I’ll release him into the forest after I show him to my class tomorrow afternoon. I do so hate having him in a cage. I suppose that makes me a bit of a Hufflepuff at heart, doesn’t it?”

Will does laugh and shakes his head a little. “I never understood how you were a Slytherin anyway, Magnus. When I was here, Druitt was teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts and you were Potions and I couldn’t figure how he was the Gryffindor and you were the Slytherin. I thought for sure someone up to his eyeballs in Dark Magic had to be from Slytherin.”

Magnus pulls a little face, displeased, and then her features smooth over into something pleasant once more. “A house does not dictate the character of a person. I value ambition and look out for myself. I am possessed of a certain cunning, or I would not have invented as many potions as I have. Draught of Lost Memory was my invention, as you know. You also did not know John and I when we were in school. John was brave and daring and full of nerve. He was...obsessed with me. He loved me and when I did not reciprocate it to his liking, that love twisted into hate. The Dark Lord was able to easily manipulate him and found himself in possession of a powerful weapon. A talented duellist who was employed at Hogwarts, teaching Defence? Who better to spy for him? Who better? I will thank you not to assume things about my moral character solely because I am a Slytherin and proud to be one. The Magnus family has been Slytherin since the time of the Founders.”

Will flushes a little and looks down, trying to find something to focus on so he feels like less of an idiot. He’d known that Magnus and Druitt had some kind of _thing_ and he hadn’t meant to poke at that but it appears he has and he probably needs to make amends in some way. He’s just not really sure where to start and he really hopes this doesn’t thwart Samantha’s chances at getting a good Ministry appointment when she graduates. “So, uh, I was here to ask you about one of my students? Goode? She really wants to go high up in the Ministry and I told her I didn’t really have the contacts she needed but that you might? I’m really sorry I insulted you but I hope you’ll still help her.”

Magnus sighs and nods, a little smile playing at the corner of her mouth. “Yes, of course. There’s no need to look like a chastised fifth year, Will, we’re colleagues. I am a bit insulted that you are assuming things you cannot possibly understand but I’m hardly...I’m not angry. I know that everyone made certain assumptions about John and rightly so. He turned out to be a despicable man. But there was good in John that was manipulated and while it’s still ultimately his fault, he wasn’t under the Imperius Curse, I can understand how the promise of _me_ would drive him to do what he did. Not that the Dark Lord can necessarily promise me because short of putting me under the Imperius Curse, I wouldn’t be with John again.” 

Will rubs the back of his neck lightly. “Yeah, I can understand that. He uh...I mean, it’s kind of a moot point now since he’s in Azkaban and the Dark Lord’s dead. But, for what it’s worth, I’m really sorry you got hurt. You’re a fantastic person, Magnus, and an amazing witch. You deserve someone, if you want that.”

Magnus laughs softly. “Perhaps I do deserve someone. We shall see.”

***

A notice goes up on Halloween that there’s to be a Yule Ball this year for fourth years and up and while Will normally wouldn’t care about that, he sees at the bottom that all teachers are expected to attend. He doesn’t have any dress robes and while he gets paid a decent salary to teach at Hogwarts, it’s not making him wealthy and he’s really not sure how he’s going to manage to swing dress robes when he’s saving every penny he has to make a trip to Ireland to visit some long-lost relatives of his mother’s.

He makes an offhand comment about it at the staff table one morning and gets a few good-natured groans from his fellow teachers except for Tesla, who was incredibly wealthy from inventing the wizarding wireless before he came to teach Transfiguration, and Magnus, who has a little smirk playing at her lips. She leans in and whispers something to her father, the headmaster, and gets up from the table. 

“Come on, Will, we have an errand to run.” Will has no idea why Helen Magnus needs to run an errand with him during the Halloween feast but he follows her because there’s not really a way to tell Helen Magnus _no_ about anything. He is prepared to go to her office, at least, but instead they end up going to a passageway that Will found when he was in school and walk through it to Hogsmeade. Magnus grins at him.

“Give me a moment so I can do something?” she asks and Will sticks his hands in his pockets. It’s not like he has any idea what’s going on and he frowns a little when Magnus casts a Patronus in the shape of a bird and it flies off over the village. In a few moments, there’s a little pop and a plump little witch is standing in front of him, the proprietor of the clothing shop in Hogsmeade. Oh. 

“Philippa owes me a favor and she’s happy to fit you for new dress robes. Come on, let’s make it quick? We’ll need to make sure the students aren’t up to anything ridiculous tonight.” Will isn’t exactly sure why Magnus needed to get them _right now_ but he guesses it’s one of the perks of being a beautiful, influential pure-blood witch that she can. He follows them both into the little shop where Philippa measures him carefully and purses her lips before pulling out several bolts of fabric.

“I really think we ought to go with blue. I know he’s not a Ravenclaw but there’s no hard and fast rule that one must always dress in the colours of one’s house, right?” Magnus grins and shakes her head. “Absolutely not. I also want a set to match, Philippa. Can we do them blue with silver stars on them, perhaps?”

Will’s eyes go wide. Is Magnus actually asking him to go to the Yule Ball with her as an escort? They’re teachers, sure, but he figured he’d just take turns shuffling around with all the teachers and spend most of his time getting students out of the bushes. Actually having a date isn’t something he’d considered at all. 

“Do you think you’ll have time to finish them before Christmas, Philippa?” The other witch thinks for a moment, face screwed up in concentration, before she nods. “I think so. He’s not going to be hard to fit anyway, skinny as he is. Provided Hogwarts doesn’t fatten him up between now and then I don’t think his robes will be a problem at all. Yours, dear, well. You’re always a dream to tailor for.”

Phillippa laughs lightly, a little tinkling sound, and there’s a blush high on her cheeks. Magnus laughs too and waves her hand. “No, flattery isn’t necessary. Thank you so much, Philippa. I’ll be here closer to the Ball to pick them up, all right? You can bill them to Gringotts vault 819.” Philippa Disapparates and Will shakes his head, whistling lowly.

“Wow, Magnus. Um. I’m not really sure what to say other than thank you?”

Magnus winks at him. “You’re supposed to say that yes, Helen, I’ll go to the Ball with you.” Will laughs nervously and they walk back to the castle, only having to stop once to get someone who’s out of bounds. 

Luckily it’s a Gryffindor.

***

Will is pretty nervous the day of the Ball. He manages to tame his hair with a well-applied charm and his glasses are clean for once in his life. An owl had delivered his new robes earlier and he slid them on, amazed at the quality of the tailoring and just how well they fit. He guesses there’s something to be said for money and he wishes he had the kind of gold to dress like this all the time. He doesn’t.

He flicks his wand and mutters _orchideous_ to produce a beautiful bouquet of red and white flowers, perfect for Christmas. He scoops them up and heads down to the Great Hall to meet Magnus, who has been busy supervising the decorations. He clears his throat and she turns and he doesn’t really know what to do. She’s _beautiful_. He’s always thought she was beautiful, of course, but it’s never been more evident than right at this moment because her hair is down in loose, soft curls and the blue of the robes compliments the blue of her eyes. 

Magnus is set to lead the opening dance with her father but afterward, all her dances belong to him. Will knows he’s supposed to be paying attention to the students and he does, a little, but most of his focus is on Magnus and just how beautiful she is, how well they move together and he’s still incredibly shocked she wants to be his date tonight. Maybe it’s just out of kindness or out of friendship but he doesn’t care. He’s been thinking about her more and more lately and he thinks, if things go right, he might actually be able to work up the nerve to say something to her about it. 

They end up going outside during a break in the music and there’s snow falling softly over the grounds. Will murmurs something about how it’s great timing and Magnus laughs “No, it’s enchanted snow. Stick your tongue out, it tastes like sweets.” Will sticks out his tongue and catches a fat snowflake, laughing when he realizes it tastes like peppermint candy and not proper snow. “Who did this charm? You?”

Magnus nods. “Yes. I was the one who devised the taste and the method of getting it into flakes. My father was the one who figured out how to make it snow down. It’ll all disappear by morning but it was a nice way to ensure that we’d have some snow for the ball.” Will thinks it’s a pretty clever bit of charm work and says so as he escorts Magnus to a bench and sits down. 

“So, uh, I’m not really sure why you asked me to the Ball but I wanted,” Will starts to stammer but Magnus presses a finger against his lips, essentially shushing him. She pulls her hand away and leans in, her mouth soft and so so close to his. “I asked you to the Ball because I have a bit of an attraction to you, Will, and I wanted to explore it. I have terrible trouble with expressing my feelings when they’re something other than wanting to work out mutual sexual frustration so I orchestrated you being my Ball date under the auspices of buying your dress robes and mine to match, so you’d feel obligated to go with me. I was afraid if I asked outright, you might say no.”

Will wants to say there’s no way in the world he’d ever say no to Helen Magnus but he doesn’t get the chance because she’s kissing him, mouth soft and open beneath his and hands tangling in his carefully-tamed hair. He slides his arms around her and sighs a little against her mouth, impossibly happy, and wonders how in the world he got _this_ lucky. 

All he can see are stars, brilliant silver against the black.


End file.
